Accent

Accent

While pronouncing words, we can distinguish syllables which are articulated
with different degrees of prominence. Syllables given a special degree of
prominence may occur at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of words. A
greater degree of prominence given to one or more syllables in a word which
singles it out through changes in the pitch and intensity of the voice and
results in qualitative and quantitative modifications of sounds in the accented

Accent performs three basic functions:
1) constitutive, because it organizes a word as a complicated sound unit;
2) recognitive, as it helps to recognize words;
3) distinctive for it helps to distinguish words and their grammar forms
(import – import; produce – produce; perfect – perfect). It also helps to
distinguish compound words from word-combinations.  this distinctive function makes word accent a separate
phonological unit performing a sense-differentiating function. He calls it
accenteme.
a.).
In spite of the fact that word accent in English is free, the freedom of its
incidence is restricted by certain factors that determine the place and different
degrees of word accent.

1) recessive tendency (tending to move away) – results in placing the
word accent on the initial syllable under the influence of the
Germanic tendency to stress the first syllable. Many English words
are of the Germanic origin (Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian). E.g.
father, mother, brother. Under the influence of this tendency words
of the Romanic origin (French) illustrate this tendency as well;

2) rhythmical tendency has caused the appearance in borrowed words
of many syllables of a secondary stress separated from the word
final principal stress by one unstressed syllable. E.g. the word
“radical” was borrowed from French. Later the word received the
recessive stress. Gradually the stress on the last syllable began to
weaken because it was contrary to the strong English tendency toplace the word accent on the fist syllable. This is an example of a
historical or diachronical rhythmical tendency. Nowadays there is a
genuine rhythmical stress in word of four or more syllables (e.g. in
the word “celebration”);

3) retentive tendency consists in the retention of the primary accent in
word derivations. E.g. norm – normal; person – personal;

4) the semantic factor plays an important role in the accentuation of
certain categories of words. For example in prefixed words in which
the prefix lost its meaning (become, before, behind, forever) the
stress falls on the root of the word, but there are words with prefixes
which have their own meaning. In such words the semantic factor
cancels the rhythmical tendency. The same is true with compound
words in which both elements are considered to be of equal
semantic importance. The classes of double-stressed English
words are:
a) words with the so called strong or separable prefixes: mispronunciation,
anti-revolutionary, non-party and some others:
disrespectful, unknown, to overwork, to underpay, to rewrite;
b) compound adjectives: dark-green, hardworking, blue-eyed;
c) phrasal verbs: come in, put off, bring up;
d) any numerals from 13 to 19 and compound numerals (23);
e) a small number of compound nouns consisting of two
elements of which the second element according to D. Jones
is felt to be of special importance: gas-stove, absentmindedness,
eye-witness.
In addition to double-stressed compound nouns English has a greater number of compound
nouns with a single stress or so called unity stress:
blacksmith, greenhouse. It should be born in mind that when
words with double stress occur in actual speech the
rhythmical tendency becomes operative and one of the
stresses is inevitably lost.